Texas Muggles Rejoice
UT Austin quidditch squad beats Slytherin — er, UCLA — to bring home world cup
Make space in the University of Texas trophy room: The school’s quidditch team won the Quidditch World Cup VI on April 14 to be crowned the best Muggle-centric squad in the world.
The wizardly sport of quidditch involves flying around on broomsticks and throwing balls in hoops and avoiding iron balls that sometimes break bones. There’s also a tiny winged ball called the Golden Snitch that’s worth, like, all the points.
The sport has found a following among college students throughout the country who desire a club sport based on magical brooms and quaffles and snitches and seekers.
Does anyone know what I’m talking about? A nerd told me it’s in the Harry Potter movies before I took his lunch money.
Look, people can’t fly on broomsticks in real life, so, at Middlebury College back in 2005, they made an approximation of quidditch, because that’s what New England liberal arts college students do. Well, that and have dinner parties featuring squash and Malcolm Gladwell.
It’s all very logical, really. Teams of seven run around on a field with broomsticks between their legs while tossing volleyballs about and avoiding dodgeballs. There’s also a person with a tennis ball stuffed in a sock, which hangs from his waist. He runs around, and, if someone catches him, then the game is over.
The game has grown so much that this year’s International Quidditch Association World Cup was a two-day affair, with 80 college teams from 36 states and four countries duking it out at Austin-Tindall Regional Park in Kissimmee, Florida.
Anyway, Middlebury won all five of the previous world cups until this year, when Texas Quidditch, one of two UT teams to make the trek, advanced through pool play on Saturday to defeat Texas A&M (boom!) and Bowling Green State University (okay, sure) in the elimination stages before vanquishing UCLA in the championship.
To commemorate the victory, UT lit the tower burnt orange, which is more than they did for my epic beer pong run of 13 games in February 2010.
So congrats to the Muggles of Texas Quidditch on a successful tournament, and may the odds be ever in your favor next year.